Trade and Competitiveness of the Mediterranean Countries on the Olive Oil Market

In the context of the establishment of a Mediterranean Free Trade Area, the paper analyses the
structure and competitiveness of the Mediterranean basin countries in the olive oil trade and gives a
preliminary explanation of the likely impact of the next liberalization process and challenges for the
EU Mediterranean countries. The paper starts showing the level of integration of the international
olive oil market and underlining the main factors affecting the process. Than, after a brief
explanation of the methodology adopted, it analyses the main results achieved. Conclusions try to
understand the impact of the competitive scenario showed by the empirical analysis on the
Euromediterranean olive oil market following the trade liberalization.